Asterix Conquers Rome (1976)

Asterix Conquers Rome Review

Asterix Conquers Rome is an Asterix comic book written by Goscinny and illustrated by Uderzo. It was published in 1976.

This book isn’t in the official Asterix canon because it wasn’t original. In fact, it was based on the movie released that year titled ‘The Twelve Tasks of Asterix’. As such, it’s not really a necessary read even for fans, but I chose to finish it off as I truly adored the movie itself.

The film was the most unique and different entry in the Asterix movie series. While the story is still fantastic, the comic itself left a lot to be desired. Its main issue is that it just copies the same plot points and dialogue from the movie without adding anything new to it, which felt lazy and uninspired.

Another issue is that this is some kind of combination of a comic and a storybook as there are no bubbles to be found anywhere, but large swaths of text combined with large panels. Admittedly, those huge panels were gorgeous to behold and simply stunningly detailed throughout, but I wished to have seen the bubbles in them, though the writing of the narration and the dialogue was actually quite strong and sophisticated, which elevated this unfortunate stylistic choice undoubtedly.

Asterix Conquers Rome benefits from gorgeous large panels and some strong writing, but it was also a lazy rendition of a much better movie that ultimately felt uninspired.

My Rating – 3.5